How to Import an Azure Resource Group into Terraform

Import Azure Resource Group with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Azure Resource Manager resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live Azure Resource Group to managed Terraform.

terraback scan all azure --subscription-id YOUR_ID

terraback azure import --method bulk

The Terraform import block

Terraback emits a Terraform 1.5+ import block like the one below. Because the block lives in your configuration, the import is reviewable in a pull request and repeatable across environments.

import {
  to = azurerm_resource_group.prod
  id = "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/prod-rg"
}

Example azurerm_resource_group configuration

Here is a realistic Azure Resource Group block. Terraback generates a fuller version from your actual resource attributes; this is a minimal, valid starting point.

resource "azurerm_resource_group" "prod" {
  name     = "prod-rg"
  location = "eastus"
}

Gotchas when importing a Azure Resource Group

• The resource group ID is shorter than other Azure IDs: it stops at /resourceGroups/<name>.
• Deleting a resource group in Terraform deletes everything inside it; the provider blocks this by default unless the group is empty.
• Tags applied at the group level do not automatically propagate to child resources.

Doing it manually with terraform import

The native approach is to write the azurerm_resource_group block by hand, then run terraform import azurerm_resource_group.example <import-id> for every resource, one at a time. That works for a handful of resources, but it does not scale: you author all the HCL yourself and repeat the command for each item. Terraback generates the HCL and the import blocks for your whole account in one pass.

Import other Azure resources